Those I spend most of my time in these days are just doctors' waiting rooms where I am waiting to make a scheduled visit every few months. So many of them! This kind of wait can be boring, or can be fun. I never know who will be there ahead of me or how long a time I will be there. I really enjoy some of them. Great conversations sometimes with strangers.
One I visited this week w
as empty when I got there. I didn't have to wait very long. There was a brief chat with the woman behind the window. She's a very pleasant person to chat with. And I always get a kick out of the childish pictures tacked to the door. I asked the doctor about them long ago. It seems that one of his daughters had decided to add to the decor one day. Obviously, she was quite small at the time. She is now attending college, but he said that so many people seemed to enjoy them, he just never took them down. I like that. There is also a series of colored paper leaves on the window, probably from the same source. I like the doctor too. He also is very pleasant to chat with, and very conversational, unlike some others who almost make me feel that I am imposing just by being there.I also enjoy my visits to my family doctor. She and her nurse and receptionist are all such nice people. I look forward to those visits.
I do remember one waiting room where the staff was almost ready to throw us out. It was in the hospital where I was to have cancer surgery. They weren't really ready for me when we got there, so we had a little wait. It was fairly small for a waiting room, and we were the only ones there - all of my children and myself. It may have been started by tension and worry on their part I suppose - but before long we were all kidding around and laughing. A nurse came in to find out what all the noise and merriment was about. She looked rather incredulous. That was a really nice hospital stay too. And I HATE hospitals. But there were no beds on the floor where I should have been, so they put me into a private room on Pediatrics. At Shore Memorial, the hallways on the Pediatrics floor are painted like the boardwalk - with all the colorful shops along one side, and the beach and ocean on the other. Each room has a bright, cheerful decorative theme and the nurses' station has a huge tropical fish aquarium. Of course, the nurses on that floor are exceptionally kind and cheerful. It was great!
My wish for all of you would be that, if you ever find you must be hospitalized, you find just such a pleasant place for it.
